AT&T; Accused of Cheating to Get Customers
MCI Communications on Thursday charged American Telephone & Telegraph with cheating in the war for long-distance customers.
“In one area, AT&T; submitted over 60,000 false orders to the local operating companies,” MCI Chairman William G. McGowan told stockholders at the company’s annual meeting.
Pic Wagner, an AT&T; spokesman, denied any intentional effort to steal customers from other companies. However, he confirmed that computer tapes with erroneous information were provided to Nynex, the local telephone company that serves New York and New England.
“It would make no sense for us to deliberately irritate customers,” said Wagner, Washington public affairs representative for AT&T.;
Saul Fisher, general counsel for Nynex Service, said in a telephone interview that “we have no reason to believe this is anything but an inadvertent error.”
An MCI executive said the 60,000-line discrepancy occurred in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
In a separate document filed with the Justice Department, MCI complained that it appears that there may be phony orders being placed all over the country.
The letter to the Justice Deparment said MCI customers complained that AT&T; was reclaiming them without authorization. Many local telephone companies accept the order with the latest date.
Bob Jackson, the MCI executive in charge of relations with local telephone companies in the Northeastern region, said: “AT&T; has been supplying to the telephone companies for installation the names of people who did not select them.”
Jackson said MCI had been receiving complaints from customers who said they had signed up for MCI but were getting bills from AT&T.; “This is a major, major problem.”
He said that, in early April, MCI accidentally received a computer tape that listed AT&T; customers. On reviewing the tape, he said, MCI discovered that it had signed orders for 604 customers that AT&T; was claiming.
He said that MCI was able to contact about two-thirds of the customers and discovered that some had given authorization to both companies, but others said they were not contacted by AT&T.;
Nynex’s Fisher said there were actually two incidents. In one, Nynex mixed up computer tapes, sending an MCI tape to AT&T; and vice versa. It was from that tape that MCI tracked the customers claimed by both companies.
The other problem, Fisher said, was a programming error discovered by AT&T.; AT&T; reported the error to Nynex and has been working with MCI, Nynex and the other long-distance companies to sort out the problems. About 60,000 lines are involved in that situation.
Fisher said Nynex accepts the order with the latest date in cases where there are conflicts.
In its letter to the Justice Department section that is watching over the equal-access process, MCI attorney Michael H. Salsbury complained about delays in hooking up subscribers to the right long-distance company.
He said customers are “upset when the dialing convenience is delayed and even more upset when they unexpectedly receive an AT&T; bill after cutover. The consequences for MCI are significant decreases in revenue and credibility.”
The delay in transferring a customer from AT&T; to a new long-distance company, he said, provides AT&T; “a windfall of revenue.”
